2027: NDC had bad primaries – Sam Amadi

Former chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, Sam Amadi, has criticised the conduct of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, primary elections, describing them as poorly organised and heavily rigged.

In a post on X on Thursday, Amadi said the NDC’s primaries were the weakest among the major political parties that recently conducted internal elections ahead of the 2027 general elections.

According to him, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, also conducted flawed primaries, but the African Democratic Congress, ADC, was comparatively better organised despite alleged irregularities.

He ranked ADC first in terms of organisation, APC second and NDC last, while maintaining that all three parties conducted heavily manipulated primaries.

Amadi argued that it was difficult to achieve credible primaries under the prevailing political environment and timelines, adding that the NDC’s performance could partly be attributed to the short period available for preparations.

Amadi wrote: “@NigeriaNDCHQ had bad primaries. Nothing special about it. @OfficialAPCNg primaries were similarly horrible.

“@ADCNig is the only major party that had a ‘well-organized’ primary. But it was similarly rigged. ‘Well-organized’ means ‘better coordinated’, ‘well-structured’. It does not mean ‘free and fair’.

“So, the verdict remains the same: ADC comes first and APC second on organization. NDC comes last. But, all had very rigged primaries. It is almost impossible to have ‘free and fair’ primaries under the current regime and timelines.

“NDC has done relatively better than other parties considering it had shorter time to do much. it could have done better with its primaries but many greedy and poor people in Nigerian politics. It has to step up now if it wants to be taken as Nigeria’s main opposition.”